{"id":119502,"date":"2020-10-18T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/survivalists"},"modified":"2020-10-18T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T17:00:00","slug":"review-the-survivalists-surprisingly-light-on-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/10\/18\/review-the-survivalists-surprisingly-light-on-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Survivalists &#8211; Surprisingly Light On Danger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/5f3b4ba1e7f31\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/5f3b4ba1e7f31\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"The Survivalists Review - Screenshot 1 of 3\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/109497\/large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/109497\/900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" alt=\"The Survivalists Review - Screenshot 1 of 3\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/survivalists\">The Survivalists<\/a><\/strong> is not the most enticing title that Team17 could have gone with for this one. Yes, it sets the stage for this follow-up to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/escapists_complete_edition\">The Escapists<\/a><\/strong> in keeping with its traditional nomenclature, but they really should have front-loaded the monkey butlers, and called the game \u2013 for example \u2013 <strong>Monkey Butlers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, <em>monkey butlers<\/em>. In this otherwise fairly traditional top-down survival game, you are able to train a committed workforce of chimps into doing your bidding, meaning that your dreams of a primate army are tantalisingly within reach. It\u2019s a feature that should have consistently brought great joy and elevated The Survivalists in a very packed genre, but&#8230; it doesn&#8217;t. Repetition is a big problem with many survival games, and while this undeniably cool feature of having your banana-munching crew essentially automate many common tasks is a bit of a breath of fresh air, The Survivalists still trades in its chosen genre&#8217;s familiar tropes, meaning there\u2019s an unavoidable dose of tedium and imprecision mixed in with some flaws of its very own.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"The Survivalists Review - Screenshot 2 of 3\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/109500\/large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 900 506'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/109500\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"The Survivalists Review - Screenshot 2 of 3\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Said imprecision comes to bear very quickly, as after choosing your character\u2019s appearance and awakening on a seemingly-deserted island, you\u2019ll almost instantly find that the (well-drawn and attractive) scenery tends to obscure routes and floor-bound resources, making the quite basic task of sweeping up useful items into a bit of a chore. There also doesn\u2019t seem to be a way to pick up multiple things at once, meaning that gathering crafting materials is slightly more irritating than it needs to be \u2013 a mantra that can unfortunately be applied to just about the whole experience. That&#8217;s not to say it&#8217;s <em>roundly<\/em> awful; there&#8217;s just about enough unpredictable carnage and accessibility here that you&#8217;d be hard pressed not to have at least a couple of hours of fun, but there&#8217;s a bit of a fundamental disconnect between The Survivalist&#8217;s concept and its execution.<\/p>\n<p>See, The Survivalists is a light-hearted kind of game, and we\u2019re just not sure that breeziness and <em>desperately scrambling to stay alive<\/em> really fit together. Resources don\u2019t ever feel scarce and most obstacles can be circumvented pretty simply \u2013 for example, furious natives can be subdued by a pack of rabid monkeys, beaten up with a club, or simply ran away from. There are caves and <strong>Zelda<\/strong>-ish dungeons to explore \u2013 and they\u2019re fun, with entertaining combat challenges and light puzzle solving \u2013 but there\u2019s nothing really <em>worth finding<\/em> in them.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s shopping, trading, fishing, but it&#8217;s all just <em>there<\/em>. Once you\u2019ve built up a base it can be assaulted by vicious orcs, but even a drubbing and the theft of most of your stuff isn\u2019t much more than an annoyance here. You top out the crafting trees quickly and your monkeys can provide an effectively endless stream of materials, so you shouldn&#8217;t ever find yourself at a loose end. Hunger is easily kept at bay and there just aren\u2019t that many variables you\u2019ll need to juggle, making survival into a matter of routine rather than a barely-achievable and constantly-shifting set of deadly goalposts.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"The Survivalists Review - Screenshot 3 of 3\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/109501\/large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 900 506'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/109501\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"The Survivalists Review - Screenshot 3 of 3\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>We wonder if that\u2019s the point; the contrast between the setting, the genre and just how <em>chill<\/em> it all is all offer a rather distinctive take on (ah, ah, ah, ah) staying alive. It would be foolish to pretend that exploring the cheerful environments with a coterie of chimps at our command isn\u2019t a good deal of fun at times, it\u2019s just all a little\u2026 <em>aimless<\/em>, and the minor irritations keep cropping up \u2013 your exceptionally limited inventory, the way you can\u2019t see the next unlock on the crafting tree so won&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re aiming towards, the monkey butler A.I leaving a lot to be desired, special items being completely unnecessary due to the low difficulty\u2026 it all adds up to what\u2019s going to be a <em>very<\/em> Marmite experience.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, updates have been promised, and it\u2019s certainly the case that a few tweaks to The Survivalists could turn it into a much more compelling little sandbox title. As it is now, it\u2019s all a little toothless to really get stuck into \u2013 after a few hours, we felt like we\u2019d seen more or less everything, and after a little further research, it turned out that <em>we had<\/em>. Once you&#8217;re able to visit other islands you&#8217;d expect things to open up, but it just amounts to more of the same. There&#8217;s an online mode included for up to four players that lets you host and jump into games \u2013 which adds some value \u2013 but it just serves to highlight The Survivalists&#8217; simplicity. A higher (or adjustable) difficulty would go a long way to creating a more arresting survival experience, but perhaps the game\u2019s laid-back nature would be sacrificed in the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Some will get a lot out of The Survivalists, and we&#8217;d find it difficult to argue that it isn&#8217;t fun \u2013 but your mileage will seriously vary on how quickly you burn out on its lackadaisical approach to the <em>danger<\/em> that really defines the survival genre. As an entry-level take on the principles it&#8217;s pretty good, but even the least experienced survivor will reach endgame gear quickly and find there&#8217;s just not a whole lot left to do. Updates could (and hopefully will) mitigate this issue, but The Survivalists \u2013 as it is now \u2013 feels a little&#8230; well&#8230; <em>deserted<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) The Survivalists is not the most enticing title that Team17 could have gone with for this one. Yes, it sets the stage for this follow-up to The Escapists in keeping with its traditional nomenclature, but they really should have front-loaded the monkey butlers, and called the game \u2013 for example [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}